Monday, June 30, 2014

Cardboard is a simple DIY enclosure that transforms a phone into a basic virtual reality headset and the accompanying open software toolkit. Cardboard makes it easy for both users and developers to experiment with VR.

This session in Google I/O 2014, Cardboard: VR for Android, discuss how to build immersive 3D experiences for Android. Give a deep dive into 3D side-by-side rendering, head tracking, and user interaction principles. Introduce a new open source VR toolkit and walk through using it to create a sample immersive app.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

ART is an evolution of the Android runtime, and was first made available as an option on Android 4.4, KitKat. It comes with improvements in the garbage collector, threading and locking model, compiler and runtime performance. This session in Google I/O 2014, The ART runtime, focus on all of the improvements have been made to the Android runtime.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Android L Developer Preview is available for download. It lets developers explore features and capabilities of the upcoming Android L release and get started developing and testing on the new platform. You can take a look at the developer features and APIs in the API Overview page.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Modify from previous example "DashPathEffect, apply dash effect on path", implement PathDashPathEffect. In order to make it running, advance phase of PathDashPathEffect, and call invalidate() in onDraw() method.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

If you are a multimedia developer on Android platform you need USB for media transfer or playback audio. This book explores MTP and USB Audio in both USB device and USB host mode.If you are an core developer who work on charging you need to understand USB charging specification which is explained in the book,If you are a networking developer interested in tethering, USB plays a role using RNDIS specification which is explained in the bookIf you are an application developer interested in managing USB devices in from an Android platform, this book explores Android USB Service framework which manages USB functionalitiesLast not the least, Android Debug Bridge (ADB) the debugging tool of Android is over USB and knowledge of its internals is a define value add for any application or platform developer. This book details the internal of ABD till the kernel level.

Thus this book covers everything about USB on Android from different USB Classes supported in device mode to the USB host framework that manages USB device connected to an Android platform. Each chapter will explain USB class specification before exploring how the functionality (class) is implemented in Android. This gives a clean perspective for you as a reader on what the USB specification demands and how it implemented in Android.

Learn critical changes in the Android USB framework between different Android versions.

Learn how USB charging works with explanation from the USB Battery Specification.

Learn how to switch between MTP to Mass Storage and vice versa to share storage to host PC.

Who this book is for

The primary audiences of this book are application developers and engineers who do hands on work with Android. This book is for an application developer who has an APP idea with USB and wonders how to implement it. This book will be a definite guide for the developer and help him/her to manage USB on Android.

With the book covering from APIs to the Linux kernel, core platform developers finds it easy to put data point to debug. Thus core Android platform developers working on USB, Audio, media and others are the next primary audiences of the book.

Technical Managers or Architects or senior managers who look for eagle eye view of a system, are the secondary audiences of the book. The book will enable them to understand the different blocks of the Android USB subsystem and would help plan and estimate complexity involved.

Student and engineers can use this book as a do it yourself reference book as the book explains different blocks the Android USB framework from application level to the kernel. Students can use similar study approach to similar Android framework.

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It is another approach to do the same job as the previous example "Use CountDownTimer to do something repeatly, updating custom view". Instead of implementing CountDownTimer inside custom view as self running function of custom view, this example implement CountDownTimer in MainActivity, and handle all the timing functions. The custom view simple display the graphic only.

Monday, June 9, 2014

This example show how to change color spots in custom view repeatly with CountDownTimer. We also implement callback interface on MainActivity.java, such that our custom view can callback MainActivity to pass something.

May be it is not a good practice to achieve such a job, just a example to use CountDownTimer.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Refer to my old exercise of "Count Down Timer", it is a one-shot CountDownTimer. In some case you want to reset/restart the CountDownTimer, you have to cancel the old one if exist, otherwise both old and new CountDownTimer will run together.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Understand Android Intents to make application development quicker and easier

Categorize and implement various kinds of Intents in your application

Perform data manipulation within Android applications

In Detail

Android is an emerging technology with loads of apps in the Google Play Market. Till date, it is the biggest marvel in Smartphone technology, propelling a larger number of developers into Android application development. Intent is an essential part of any Android Application and no Android application is complete without using them. Features such as listening broadcasts, sending messages, sharing via social networks, notifications, hardware components including camera, sensors, Wi-Fi, and more, can be used in your applications by using Intents.

This practical guide focuses on using intents to make the best use of various features of Android platform. It is ideal for those developers who want to understand the backbone and the domain of Android Intents, its power, and the need for it inside an Android application. Practical, in-depth examples are used throughout the book, to help you understand the key concepts.

The book starts with introducing the very basic concepts of Android, and its various facts and figures such as different Android versions, their release dates, evolution of Android phones and so on. While covering the basic technical concepts, it proceeds from the easiest route of introducing Android Intents towards the more practical view of Android Intents in terms of components and features.

You will learn how to use different components and features such as transfer data between activities, invoke various features and components of Android, execute different in-built and custom-made services, use hardware and software components of Android device, and start Pending Intents & notifications. You will gain better theoretical knowledge of what is running behind the concepts of Android Intents, and practical knowledge of the mobile-efficient ways to perform a certain task using Android Intents.

Towards the end, you will have a clear vision and a practical grip on Android intents and its features. Learning Android Intents is a proper guide to give you the best knowledge of Intents.

What you will learn from this book

Understand Android Intents and their importance in Android apps

Get to grips with the different types of Intents and their implementation

Discover data transfer methods in Android Intents along with their optimization and performance comparisons

Explore the implementation of Intents while invoking Android Features in an application.

Use Intent Filters and their sub-domains in order to perform various actions and sorting categories in Android Intents

Catch different events while working with Broadcast Receiver and perform various actions

Implement pending Intents and Intent Service, sending text to the Notification Panel, and much more

Approach

The book will take an easy-to-follow and engaging tutorial approach, providing a practical and comprehensive way to learn Android intents.

Build a working multi-view Android app incrementally throughout the book

Work with device capabilities such as location sensors and the camera

In Detail

Technology trends come and go, but few have generated the excitement, momentum, or long-term impact that mobile computing has. Mobile computing impacts people's lives at work and at home on a daily basis. Many companies and individual developers are looking to become a part of the movement but are unsure how to best utilize their existing skills and assets. The Xamarin suite of products provides new opportunities to those who already have a significant investment in C# development skills and .NET code bases, and would like to enter into this new, exciting world.

This example-oriented guide provides a practical approach to quickly learning the fundamentals of Android app development using C# and Xamarin.Android. It will lead the readers through building an Android app step-by-step with steadily increasing complexity.

This book begins with an overview of the Android and Xamarin platforms to provide you with a solid understanding of the environment you will be working in. You will then be gradually walked through building and testing an Android app using C# and the Xamarin.Android product. You will learn the basics of interacting with some of the more interesting aspects of Android devices including location services, the camera, and maps. You will also be given the opportunity to work with three different layout managers to gain an understanding of the various options available for arranging controls and content. The book ends with a discussion on the final steps involved in preparing apps for deployment to the various Android app stores.

In a relatively short period of time, developers familiar with C# and rich client technologies such as WPF and Silverlight will be effectively developing, testing, and delivering Android apps.

What you will learn from this book

Build a multi-view Android application with navigation

Utilize the ActionBar for app actions

Create a simple JSON-based persistent service to save data locally on the device

Lay out content using the LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, and TableLayout layout managers

Use a ListView (AdapterView) and Adapter to build a view that is populated by dynamic data

Capture the current location of a device and determine the street address

Integrate with the map app to display a point of interest

Capture and save a photo

Test, debug, and deploy an Android app

Approach

A step-by-step tutorial that follows the development of a simple Android app from end to end, through troubleshooting, and then distribution. The language used assumes a knowledge of basic C#.

Who this book is written for

If you are a C# developer with a desire to develop Android apps and want to enhance your existing skill set, then this book is for you. It is assumed that you have a good working knowledge of C#, .NET, and object-oriented software development. Familiarity with rich client technologies such as WPF or Silverlight is also helpful, but not required.